The Sun. — London, England, 1864-01-15 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN RAILWAYS FOR 1864, In cur previous notice on this subject we stated that the great railway struggle of this session would be between the rival plans of Mr. Hawkshaw and Mr. Fowler, the latter gentleman having adopted the lonia' suggestions of last year and now bring ing forward two gigantic, but most comprehensive, EC:henies for carrying them out. The chief sugges tions made by the Lords' Committee were, that what is called the metropolitan railway district should be considerably extended, that no main lines should be allowed to come further into the metro- polis, and that an inner and an outer circle of rail way should be formEd by an independent company which should intercept all the great main lines above their present metropolitan termini, and so divert their traffic round rather then through London,,The outer circle it was recommended should be used for this interception of goods and passenger traffic ; the inner for the purely local traffic of the metropolis itself. It was further recommended that at one po.rt of their circumference the inner and outer circles should join at a level, so as to virtually make t he two lincs one for the purposes of communication. 'This report, from which Mr. Hawkshaw dissented, Mr. Fowler has accepted, and, with a large staff of surveyors, has passed the recess in carefully set ting out a plan in which all the recommendations of their lordships are carried out ; and the two projects are really most comprehensive. The cost, however, is likely to be a formidable drawback on the commercial success of the plans, and most especially when we consider what it is estimated at, compared with whit the outlay is almost certain to be. The inner circle is merely an extension of the Metropolitan, or underground, Railway, which now commences at Paddington and ends at Blackfriars, but which is being ex tended to Finsbury-circus. This line it is now proposed to extend from Paddington through and beneath Bayswater, under Notting-hill, and round and at some distance outside the western extremity of Kensington-gardens. Thence it sweeps round Brompton, passing behind the houses facing the Exhibition in Cromwell-road, and continues along the south side of Chester-square to the Victoria station, and across Westminster to Westminster bridge. From Westminster it is hoped to take it along the Thames Embankment to Blackftiars, and thence wader the proposed new street into Cannon street, where it has a defiant station full in front of Mr. Hawkshaw's. From Cannon-street it winds under King William-street to the Fenchurch sta tion, and thence round by Haydou-square, across Liverpool-street, beneath Finsbury-square, where it attest joins the end of the lletropolitan underground line which is now being made. This constitutes the inner circle, though, as its course has been as far as possible selected to avoid valuable property, it as vary far indeed from being a circle, but is an irre gular oblong about five miles long by two broad. Its total length is 121 miles, of which four miles are already built in the Underground Railway, leaving 8!-- ; to ba constructed, and the estimate for this 84 mite& is £3,000,000, or in round numbers about £300,000 per mile. This estimate appears little short of astounding when we consider the nature of the property the line passes through, as compared with the property taken by the Underground Rail way, which has cost more than 1300,000 per mile. At what price is it expected the contracts will be let for taking the tunnel up Cannon-street and under King William-street to Fenchurch station, when the contractor is liable for all damage done to the surrounding buildings by cracks and settlements ? We know how in the very widest thoroughfare in London—that down the New-road—the houses on either side were afficted while the tunnel was being made for the subterraneln line. Is it expected that a similar tun aiel can be made through such a as that under Cannon-street, which is less than a quarter the width of the New-road, without cracking the lofty piles of warehouses on either side far and near ? How much per foot will a contractor expect for driving a tunnel under King 'William-street to Fen church when he has to pay for the damage done all around him ? The idea of such an inner circle is, no doubt, an excellent one if it were practicable with reasonab:e outlay, and if it did not include within its schemes the total disfigurement of the Thames Embankment ; bat to say that it can be effected for 13,000,000 is to set the engineering world staring with amazement. The stations on this line are pro posed to he all open to the air, and these will be the only outward signs of the existence of the line, which will be entirely subterranean. There are to be stations in Liverpool -street, Fenchurch, Cannon street, Eare-street,Viraterloo-bridg,e, at Westminster (where there are two, one for the public, and one to he used only by members of the Lords or Commons) one at Victoria, one in Pimlico, one at Bro mpton, one at Kensington, one at Notting-hill, and one at .Bayswater, and the cost of all these, including those in the city, is supposed to be covered by the esti reat- of 13,000,000. ll'he outer circle is as comprehensive in idea and as expensive in fact as the inner, but though likely, perhaps, to be more useful to the public than the inner line, it is unfortunately certain to be more vehemently opposed, from the mass of vested inte rests in the shape of established lines on the profits of which it apparently trenches. This outer circle is, in railway parlance, intended to "tap" the great lines leading to London at short distances outside their metropolitan termini, and draught off their paseengers to the various districts round London to which they may be destined, in the suburbs, oar, by the junction of the inner and outer circles, to the heart of the city itself. Whether the great main lines are likely to approve this scheme or not 'aye cannot sF.y, though on the face of it, as inter cepting their passengers may mean intercepting part of their profits, it isjust possible that they may not, be willing to join in it. These considerations, however, are, in a manner, beside the question with the public, who will only look on the plan in the light in which it is offered to them—as an accom medation for themselves. It is under this aspect that we have to regard it—to see how far what it Troffers is capable of execution. The enter circle, then, commences at the South-Western near Clap• ham, crosses the river at Battersea, passes through Erompton, and makes its junction near the Exhi bition with the inner circle, along which it runs side by side to Notting-hill, From this point it diverges across to the Great Western, which it' taps" at about a mile from Paddington, thence on to the London and North - Western Railway, which it joins, or "taps" rather, at Kilburn, and so on to the llampetead. and City Junction, where it has a per :ea fen of branches. It continues round by South end to Kentish -town (crossing the Hampstead and City Junction again), and s 3 on to Holloway, where at the Seven Sisters Station it " taps" the Great Northern, and goes to Stamford-hill, making its junction with the Great Eastern at Upper Clapton. From this point it turns south through Lower Clap ton, Homerton, Hackney, Old Ford, Bo w,Bromley, Limehouse, crossing the Thames between the West India and Commercial Docks on a high level bridge, and thence on to Deptford, where, near New-cross, it again; spreads out like a fan to form four junc tions with a mass of southern lines. From these junctions the remainder of the circle is completed by the London and Brighton line, which passes through Peckham and Camberwell, and joins with the Le idea, Chatham,-and Dover, which continues on through Clapham to the South-Western. This is the outer circle. Its diameter is 7 miles, its length 24 mites, and its junctions and branches 8 miles more —32 mile * s iu all. Its estimated cost is £5,000,000, and it is carried either on arches or embanktnents almost entirely at a high level above the streets. Of what kind this line will be may be at once seen from the fact that in its 21 miles' length it has no lees tear. 8 miles of branches and junctions. It has, in fact, upwards of 3') junctions with great main lines. Every railway traffic manager knows how easy it is to despatch trains quickly ; how difficult it is even to approximate to time when the arrange ments depends on the trains that have to arrive. If this outer circle with its mass of junctions can be managed with less than six lines of rail it will do what no other company has ever yet achieved; and we do not hesitate to say that with the time lost in catching arrival and departure trains a traveller could reach Brighton in the same, if not in less time, than would be oceep;ed in journeyieg over this 24 miles of junctions. The Lords' Committee have recommended this plan in order to prevent the entry of main lines into the metropolis ; yet by Act of Parliament every line is entitled to right of way over a line which joins it on payment of certain tolls fixed by the Act, and in virtue of this law the Great Northern and London and North-We'tern might, in fact, bring their terminus into one or two points of the inner circle which would pay them best. With such a provision we certainly fail to see how the great main lines are kept out of the metropolis by this inner and outer circle, the only claim of which to be made at all is that they bring them all in. On the question, too, of estimate, ►this outer circle appears even more strange than the inner, in the low figures at which its cost i s pl a ced. Take the high level bridge at Lime house, for instance. It is certainly not an average specimen of the estimates; on the contrary, to say fairly, it is the worst example of under-estima ting to be found in the outer circle. Still, when it is a work of the most stupendous magnitude, and one likely, it carried out, to attract the attention of engineers throughout the world, the cost of it, as at present estimated, may be justly referred to by any who look to the outlay which is likely to b© neces sary to complete the plans. This bridge, as we have said, crosses the Thames at Limehouse, and at that part of the river it must be carried at such a height as, like the Britannia-bridge,will admit of the pas sage under it of vessels of every size. It is to be laid for four lines of rail, is to be 140 ft. above high water, is to be built in a single span of 700 ft., and to be built in place, and the estimate is £380,000 ! To the general reader it is only necessary to say a few words to explain why engineers regard a bridge of this kind for such a sum as impossible. The Bri tannia-bridge cost very nearly £1,000,000, and its greatest span is not over 600 ft., and it was built on the shore, and raised to its present level-100ft. above the water—in single spans. The high-level bridge of Mr. Fowler is to be an imitation of Mr. Brunel's great bridge at Saltash, but, instead of spans similar to that structure, Mr. Fowler pro poses of 700 feet,—that is to say, very nearly the length of the water-way of Westminster-bridge, without any support except from its two ends. The bridge is, in fact, to be one girder, 130 feet deep by 700 feet long, and to be built in its place,—that is to say, from side to aide, until it meets in the mid dle, and all for £380,000. If Mr. Fowler seriously proposes to keep within his estimate he has under taken a far more difficult task than the bridge itself. THE TOWNLEY CASE, The following are copies of papers relating to the case of George Victor Townley : NO. 1. MR. WADDINGTON TO THE SECRETARY TO THE CO3INI7S. SIONERS IN LUNACY. Whitehall, Dec. 23, 1863. Sir,—l am directed by Secretary Sir Geo. Grey to request that you will lay before the Commissioners in Lunacy the enclosed pipers in the case of George Victor Townley, now under sentence of death for murder. Sir George Grey is of opinion that the verdict of the jury, in which Mr. Baron Martin, who presided at the trial, concurs, and which appears to Sir Gorge Grey from the evidence to have been right, decides the question as to the sanity of the prisoner at the time when the crime was committed. The only question therefore on which any doubt exists, and upon which in the opinion of the judge there ought to be further inquiry, is, whether the prisoner is now insane. It is to be regretted that this question was not raised before the trial, when it could have been sub• mitted to a jury, but, under the actual circum stances, Sir George Grey requests that the Commis sioners in Lunacy will be so good as to undertake the inquiry recommended by Mr. Baron Martin, and report to me their opinion, for his information, whethkr or not the prisoner is at the present time of unsound mind. The papers sent herewith comprise two letters from the learned Judge, with Sir George Grey's reply to the former of them, the notes of evidence taken at the trial, including the evidence of Dr. Forbes Winslow and Dr. Gisborne, and a series of applications from various persons to whom the pri soner is known, and who are able to speak as to the state of his mind before or since the commission of the murder. I am to add that the prisoner's execution is fixed for the 31st of I) , :xcmber inst.—l am, &c., H. WADDINGTON. Enclosure 1 in No. 1. Mi BARON MARTIN TO SIR G. GREY. Nottingham, Dec. 13, 1863. Sir,—George Victor Townley was convicted yes- terday before me at Derby of murder, and sentenced to be executed. I htive directed a copy of my notes to be made for you, should you desire to have it ; but there is a full report of the trial in the news papers. The conviction was, in my opinion, right ; but Mr. Forbes Winslow and Dr. Gisborne were examined at the trial, and both deposed i❑ the strongest manner that the prisoner is now of diseased mind and absolutely insane. I think it right to call your attention at once to the subject, with a -fiew to a correct opinion being formed as to the propriety of his execution.—l have, 5:2., SAMUEL MARTIN. Enclosure 2 in No. 1. MR. BRUCE TO MR. BARON MARTIN. Whitehall, Dec. 17, 1863. Sir,—l am directed by Secretary Sir George Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th inst., in the case of George Victor Townley, convicted before you of murder; and I am to re quest that you will be so good as to inform Sir George Grey whether the impression produced on your mind by the evidence of tho two medical men examined at the trial, coupled with the de meanour of the prisoner, was such as to induce you to believe that the prisoner is now insane, or that there is so much reason to believe him so as to call for further inquiry, as the report of the evidence in the Times to which you refer :n your letter does not appear to Sir George Grey to be by any means con clusive.—l am, &c., 11. A. BRUCE. Enclosure 3 in No. 1: 31n, BARON MARTIN TO MR. BRUCE, M,P. Noryi'lcb, Dee. 18, 1863. have received your letter of the 17th inst., requesting me to inform Sir George Grey whether the impression produced on my mind by the evi dence of the two medical witnesses on the trial of George Victor Townley, coupled with the demean our of the prisoner, was such as to induce me to believe that the prisoner is now insane, or that there is such reason to believe him so as to call for further inquiry. I cannot say that I have formed any de cided opinion upon the point. The demeanour of the prisoner afforded me no means of arriving at one. He sat during the trial with his head depressed; I scarcely once saw his countenance ; and he never spoke. I would not be justified in saying that the evidence of Mr. Forbes Winslow and Dr. Gisborne is not correct, but I certainly think, and have thought ever since the trial, that there ought to be further inquiry. I enclose a copy of my notes of evidence. You will find that of Dr. Winslow end Dr. Gisborne at page 25 and follow ing pages.—l. am, &c., SAMUEL MARTIN. N0.• 4 2, ExponT OF THE COMMISSIONERS IN LUNACY. Derby, Dec. 28, 1863 We, the undersigned Commissioners in Lunacy, report for the information of SecriAary Sir George Grey,— _ _ rinat in compliance with the request cont6ned in Mr. Wadding,ton's letter of the 231 of December, we have undertaken the inquiry recommended by Mr. Baron Mar'Lin as to whether George Victor Townley, now under sentence of death at Derby f9r murder, is or is not at the present time of unsound mind. We proceeded to Derby on the morning of the 26th, and have sinco had lengthened interviews, on two separate occasions, with the prisoner, We have also examined the governor of the prison, Mr. Sims; tho surgeon, Mr. Gisburne ; tho chaplain, Mr. Moore ; th© father and mother of the prisoner, the chief warder of the gao!, and Vac four warders who, THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING„TAINITARY 15, 1864. before and since the trial, have had exclusive charge of the prisoner, and have watched him day and night. _ _ The result of this examination of the officials of the prison, of which the detail will be found ap pended to our report, may be stated briefly as in effect establishing, without dispute, that there has been substantially no change in the prisoner's mental state since the trial ; that such difference or alteration as may have been noted has been an im provement ; and that he has been altogether more at ease, more resigned, and at times even cheerful, since the sentence was passed upon him. Not at any time since he was first brought to the gaol, according to the testimony of all who have had the means of watching him closely, does he appear to have been more rational than he is at present. In the endeavour to form a satisfactory opi nion as to his existing mental state, we have found it impossible to exclude the consideration of what his mental condition had been during the entire period of his imprisonment. What it is now it has been throughout ; and the detail of what Pas elicited from him at our interviews, ap pended to this report, is probably sufficiently ample to enable the Secretary of State to form an opinion for himself as to the prisoner's moral con dition, the views entertained by him of ,the mur der he committed, the motives that impelled him to it, and the reasons by which he justifies it. We have to remark that generally his manner during these interviews, with one or two exceptions which we have noted, was remarkably calm, quiet, and self-possessed; and though he seemed to have had no difficulty in at once, from the questions put to him, correctly inferring the object and drift of our examination, we saw not the least grounds for suspecting him of any intention to mislead us by putting on a manner not natural to him, or feigning what he did not feel. In view of the extravagant opinions thus delibe rately professed by him, of his extraordinarily per verted moral sense, and of the hereditary taint alleged, and apparently proved, to have existed in the family of the prisoner's grandmother, we cannot consider him to be of sound mind; but his views of right and wrong, false as they are, appear to have been coherently acted upon, and with a full sense of what they involved. He reasons now, as he acted in committing the murder, Upon the point of his alleged belief in a conspiracy against him we pressed him very closely ; but we could not satisfy ourselves thet this was in the nature of a delusion. It seems certain that some members of the deceased's family objected to his engagement with her, while others favoured it, or were indifferent ; and that the former had obtained an influence over her some little titre before her letter was written, which was meant finally to put an end to it. Hence he believed that she had been acted upon by a conspiracy, which was meant "in the tenderest point" to injure him ; and all the questions we put upon this part of the case failed to draw from him anything that ccuid bear other construction than that he had taken a disordered and morbid view of an actual occurrence. Being of opinion, therefore, that the prisoner continues to be now in,the same mental state as when he committed the murder and underwent his trial, we think that, applying the law as laid down by Mr. Baron Martin in this case, the prisoner, George Victor Townley, was justly convicted. W. G. CA3IPRELL. JAMES WILKES. JOHN FORSTER. by what transpired iu court, so in fact I had nothing posi tive to communicate to the Magistrates. The pros and cons I which had been traversing my brain for two months I could not place in my journal—a history of my embarrassments would not afford any insight to the state of the prisoner's mini. Supposing I had considered him insane on his ad mission, all was done for him that could be done. Magis terial authority is very limited over a prisoner before trial ; after conviction it is extended, and it becomes an important duty with me to report to de Visiting Justices the phy sical capabilities of prisoners to perform their different pri son duty ; it is also highly imperative on me to look after the mental state of sentenced prisoners, so that if insane they may be removed to Lutatic Asylums. Dr. Goode thus explaifls his share in the matter : No steps having been taken by the Visiting Justices to inquire into the state of the 3riminal'a mind, some magis trates were applied to under this clause (of the Prison Discipline Act) to take wish them two medical men and make the necessary inquiry; the proceedings and the act were duly explained to the Chairman of the Visiting Justices, and an order obtained fur admission to visit the prisoner; and let it be observed that if those who desired this inquiry were in a minority among the Magistrates, at least their judgment was corroborated by that of the autho rities at a distance, who acteally did send down Commis sioners. The "local commission," as it has been termed, having for a few hours detertd its visit to suit the conveni ence of some engaged, met it the gaol some persons stated to be the very Commissioners required. The Local Commis sion was of course of necessity deferred, and would have been omitted altogether but for an feeling that no act of forma lity should remain unfulfilledin this emergency ; it hence in due course entered on a careful examination of the prisoner, and the members, acting or their convictions, signed the necessary paper ; this paper was simply drawn up in forma l s compliance with the act, aid no reasons were appended to it, because it was decided to leave to persons more conversant the task of collecting and comparing the evidences for the Secretary of State. No friends of the prisoner, nor his solicitor, bore any part in or were present at the examination. Subsequently, to this proceeding, an informality having been pointed out, since but ono of the magistrates was a county magistrate, a second examination was undertaken in the presence of two county magistrates to avcid the technical difficulty, and if it was needless, at any rate the amount of undue influence exercised thereby in obtairing a reprieve may be judged of by the fact that it had not yet left the town when the re prieve arrived. The magistrates engaged justly remark that if the friends of Townley did not interfere, who else would by possibility do so, and in this they are sustained by the fact that since the time 31 the trial the visiting justices had never visited the prisoner, though it must not hence be in ferred that the magistrates who did visit Townley had any personal connection whatever with his friends. It has been objected to the individuals who conducted this examination that they were all already committed to maintain the pri soner's insanity, through having already signed petitions for the prisoner to the Secretary of State. This allegation is not true. Doubtless two magistrates had signed a petition, but the third had refused to do so, though he had signed a document praying for a commission ; and neither of the two medical men had signed any document whatever ; one, Mr. Harwood, from his public opportunities, has the experience in judging of insanity attained by but few general practi tioners; of my own fitness as the other I may not speak, but I would ask why was my name before all others called for by the public local press at a previous stage of these pro ceedings ? Although partner with the surgeon of the gaol, I have myself no connection with the gaol, and had had nothing to do with the prisoner, and participated in the general bias entertained against him. With regard to the proofs of insanity exhibited by the prisoner, I may remark that the account of his ordinary be: ring , and ultra opinions on religious and other subjects, have been already much discussed, and are well known, I need not hear repeat them : we find a man whose creed is annihilation after death, and possess i n flesh and blood, as before, the yet tha twheefisrhda l h l i a m ga e i x n ulting a nd gaining flesh on the conviction victim he has himself destroyed; from this and his other delusions we mayfairly draw a key to explain what we might otherwise simply call hardened impenitence, and conclude he is not simply impenitent, but mad. If a person enter tains impossible and irrational convictions on matters of fact, irrespeclive of the teachings of superstition or ignor• ance, such persons may fairly be accounted insane. The delusions entertained by the prisoner having all reference to conditions immediately upon, and subsequent to, the commission of his crime evidently follow, and do not pre cede it, though it must bo confessed that they prove the material from which have emanated these manifestations of unsound mind. in meeting with persons willing and' able to lend them the necessary funds. The consequence was, of course, a rapid augmentation of the national debt. The debt, which at the end of the first year of the war, in June, 1862, amounted to £125,000,000, in June, 1863, was £250,000,050. It was esti mated that in June, 1864, it would amount to £375,000,000, and if the war continued to June, 1865, and if that war, different from other wars, did not become more costly the longer that it lasted, the debt would then amount to £500,000,000. Now, a portion of that debt bore no interest. It had been employed as a medium of circulation to answer the purpose of money ; but it was found that the quantity which could be disposed of in this manner was necessarily limited. That limit was taken to be about £30,000,000, and it had been already reached. All the rest of the debt, and all the money that must be borrowed for the future, most necessarily belong to the interest-bearing portion of their debt, and inasmuch as the average rate of interest of their debt was 6 per cent., next June the amount which would be annually payable for interest on that debt would be about £16,000,000 or £17,000,000—a very respectable sum, even when placed by the side of the interest which we had to pay ourselves for a debt:incurred during ages and generations of wars. (Hear.) Now, these figures, large as they were, would appear still larger if contrasted with the slenderness of the proportions of the figures for these same purposes before the war, only three years ago. In June, 1861, the capital debt of that country was not more than £l7,ooo,ooo—that was to say, about the same as the interest that the debt would amount to in a very few months ; while the income necessary to cover the expenditure, which had now reached the large sum of L 150,000,000, was then not more than £12,000,000 or £13,000,000. Now, applying a scale of the same magnitude —for it was equally applicable to the other circumstances of the war, to the destruction of private property,—to the waste of human life. Bear it in mind that the facts had shown that; war could not be carried on without breaking off all allegiance to liberty ; that we had seen the Habeas Corpus act suspended, trial by jury and the independence of the judges interfered with, liberty of the press and of speech things of the past, and we could form some idea, imperfect no doubt, of the burden and sacrifice entailed by that war. Now, it might appear a redeeming feature of it that if not the origin, if not the object of it, at least the end of it would be the extinction of slavery—(hear, hear, and applause)—and the conferring of freedom upon vast num bers of human beings who had been born and were held in slavery. (Cheers.) But alas! there were many forms of evil. Slavery was one—a hateful and most-to-be-abhorred form ; war was another ; military despotism, too, was an evil and it was a question whether even so great an object as the extinction of slavery might not be purchased at too high a price. (Hear, hear.) Probably it was because some persons thought that however the war might end slavery was doomed that we found opinion in this country so much divided on the question. If slavery were the only hinge upon which the question turned, there would be na difference of opinion—(hear, hear)—but slavery apart, it was open to ask such questions as whether this war, eiffe rent as it might be in form, was not in principle the same as that which was waged by the American colonies against ourselves—whether we might not trace in it the spirit of 1776—whether we did not see in it the influence of the New World, which it was perhaps too presumptuously supposed was to exercise so predominant an influence upon the whole world—whether it was not the influence of the New World acting upon a part of itself, and whether, in short, that same centrifugal force which separated the American colo nies from this country was not now operating to separate a part of those former colonies from the other. (Cheers.) He should not attempt to offer any answer to these ques tions. It was not of great importance which direction the sympathies of people took ; what was important was the line of conduct which this country, as a whole, had pur • sued. This country had steadily adhered to a policy of nonintervention, and he believed that never were the Americans more anxious for disentanglement in the intricacies of European palities than had this country been anxious for disentanglement in this American struggle. (Hear.) So faithfully had we adhered to our policy of neu trality that, as usually happened with very fair people, we had disappointed both sides at different times. Thus the North complained that we had been too hasty in acknow ledging the South as belligerents, althc ugh they were com pelled to do the same thing quite as early as ourselves. (Hear.) On the other hand, the South thought we were too tardy in their recognition, although it was clear they had not even now succeeded in establishing their indepen dence. But appeals had also been made to the Government in reference to the acts of private persons and the rights of neutrals. He referred to the vessels of war of a formidable class. If these vessels were constructed in our ports a belli gerent could not, of course, enter our ports and seize them, because he must not violate our neutrality; and when they issued from our ports, far from being liable to seizure, they were much more likely to seize the vessel sent after them. (Laughter.) He admitted the difficulty of drawing the line between such vessels and other munitions of war, but he thought there was a distinction. These vessels had a sort of distinctive character, they sprang forth a Pallas armed— when they left our ports they were fitted and prepared at all points to prey upon the commerce of a belligerent who might be at friendship with ourselves, and in that way our ports might be viewed as starting places for hostile expedi tions. Fortunately the case had been provided for by anti cipation. An act was passed many years ago giving power to seize such vessels, and some of them had been seized for violating that act—the Alexandra, for example, and the ronclads at Birkenhead. It had been decided that the Alexandra was not strictly liable to be seized. The policy of our Government would be, however, to do as we would be done by. (Hear.) He hoped when the war was over that both sides would acknowledge that our conduct had been eminently fair. (Hear.) The impending rupture • •- , rth of Germany was a very menacing subject; in the he might appropriately preface his re but he thougtn. . - very joyful subject—the birth marks by glancing at 4. of this country, and he of an heir to the future throne, ' of good to us all as hoped that event might prove as fruitfu, of Wales. happiness to her Majesty and the Princess ees (Cheers.) Denmark was a very small country, and the u tion in dispute was a very small one, but it had brought matters to the verge of war, and it was much apprehended that if war should break out there it would drag all Europe into the vortex. There were two points in dispute, one being the question of succession to the government of the Duchies. In the Duchies the rule of succession had been in favour of the male line, while in Denmark the female line was not ex cluded from the throne. On the death of the King of Den. mark these rules of succession would have separated the dominions of Denmark into two parts, and as all the great Powers of Europe were agreed that the integrity of these dominions was of importance for the maintenance of peace in Europe, they agreed in 1852 te, recognise the title of the present King to succeed to these Duchies. The States of Holstein, it was said, were not consulted, and did not con sent to this change, hence the present difficulty. The other question arose from the Duchy of Schleswig being inhabited partly by Danes and partly by Germans; and Austria and Prussia had threatened to march their forces into Schleswig unless the King of Denmark withdrew his Constitution, which virtually incorporated Schleswig with Denmark. England in 1862, to prevent things coming to the present crisis, proposed a very sensible plan of a bond of union of our own, which it was to he regretted was not adopted ; and now, acting as usual on the side of moderation and peace, had proposed a conference on the subject which, it was to be hoped, would extricate this question from the arbitrament of the sword. (Cheers.) It would not be surprising that when there was cause for so much anxiety in general there should be an unanimous wish that England should be strong, and that justice should be done to her strength. (Hear, hear.) He was happy to believe that the forces of this country, supplemented by the well-disciplined body of volunteers, were never in a more effectiVe condition than at present, and could confidently be counted upon as equal to any emer gency. (Cheers.) It has been the object of the Government to combine efficiency with economy. In the last financial year the expenditure of the country was, for the first time for some years past, under £70,000,000, and showed a real reduction, as compared with the average annual expendi ture of the three previous years, of no less than £2,500,000. But the satisfaction which this would produce would be seen more complete when it was remembered that the estimated expenditure of the present year—and there was no reason to suppose the estimate would be exceeded—was £1,500,000 less than it was last year. (Cheers.) Thus the expenditure of this year would be £4,000,000 below the average annual expenditure of two or three years back. It followed that with a reduction of expenditure a diminution of taxation could be made; and in distributing the relief derived from that source the Government had been anxious to effect a twofold object—namely, to give direct relief to the taxpayer, and also to encourage the commerce and industry of the country. Among measures passed for the widening of our area of commerce might be mentioned the repeal of the paper duty in 1861, and the repeal in 1860 of the customs duties in connexion with the commercial treaty with France. In the sense of direct relief to the taxpayer, reference might be made to the remission of taxation during the past year. (Hear, hear.) During 1863 the income tax was reduced i from 9d to 7d in the p ound, with the not inconsiderable additional boon of allowing a man Theeo inco cme n was less than £2OO a year to deduct £6O. f ru s tio o f T h t e h r e e duty on tea was a matter which spe cemmodity, not a neces sary of life, which was was no so universal a favourite, an d whose cheapness and ex cellence were so muc h appreciated. The increase in the consumption of tea was no bad measure of the habits and customs of the people, and that increased consu Whereas tion at had been w onderful during the past 20 years. that period 40,000,000113 of tea were co nsumed there were no w 80,00 0 , 0001 b, showing in some d e gree an addition to the rational and do perhapsny of the . people. (Cheers.) It might be thought that with these grea t r eductions of tax ation the revenue of the country - must show a great falling off. But the tables of the revenue lately published told a very different and more gratifying s tory. Nothi n g , in fact, could yield more gratifying proof of the general sound condition and healthy prospects of the country. It was not to be efpected that the decline in the distress would receive a check with the advance of winter, but the additions which had as yet been made were small, compare 1 with the additions made at the corresponding period of last year. But, whether the distress advanced, receded, or altogether disappeared, it would be remembered both for its severity and for having been passed through without the aid of Parliament, without a single penny from the Exchequer. (Cheers.) And if the cultivation of cotton, TO THE EDITOR CF THE SUN. SIR,—In the communication made in this case to the Home Secretary by Mr. W. T. Cox and two other magistrates, and by Dr. Goode and Mr. Har wood, and published in The Sun of the 12th inst., there is an important error, which, with your per mission, I should like to correct. It is stated :—" Upon the trial of the prisoner, Mr. J. H. Sims, the Governor of the Gaol in which the prisoner was confined, deposed to the fact of the prisoner beim. , insane at that period—viz., on the 11th of December." I never was at the trial asked by counsel whether I considered the prisoner sane or not. Immediately after council had elicited an opinion of insanity from Dr. Winslow and Mr. Gisborne, I was asked whether I considered the prisoner was in the same state then as he was when he came into the gaol; my answer was in the afllr mative, not that I meant to imply that I considered him insane, for I never have done so. I am, sir, your obedient servant, J. H. Sias, Governor of the Gaol. County Gaol, Derby, Jan. 13. The Derby Mercury publishes a letter from Mr. Gisborne, surgeon to the Derby county prison, and another from his partner Dr. Goode; both letters having for their object the personal justification of the writers as to their share in the transaction which led to Townley's respite. Noticing the statement of Mr. Mundy, M.P., that the Visiting Justices were greatly surprised "that they were not informed by the surgeon to the gaol when he first became aware of the prisoner's insanity, after having previously given us his decided opinion that the man was per fectly sane"—Mr. Gishorne says : Townley entered the gaol on the 24th August. I saw him on the 25th, and occasionally visited him till the 6th Octo ber, the date when I made the following note in my jour nal :—Oct, 6, Townley aperient pills. Good health, mind, and body." In my interviews with the prisoner our conver sation was of the most general character, I found him placid, free, and satified ; he eat his food, slept well, and neither asked for nor needed any medical advice; in fact, during the whole of his imprisonment, he only twice or thrice re quested to see me as his health was good. Up to October the Gth I never once alluded to the crime on which he was to be arraigned, for with that I had nothing to do, My conversations with him had only proved to me that his mind. was weak, and that he was ill-educated. The evidence thus before me disclosed no grounds for suspecting insanity. I was impressed as the public were that he was sound in mind and body. The above curt note was made for recalling to my memory his general state of health, and not for the purpose of supplying the visiting justices with any formation. The visiting justices, though they met on Oct. 9, Nov. 13, and December, never indivi dually or collectively officially asked me one word as to Townley's mind, or ever called my attention to it. As soon as a winter assize was arranged, I visited Townley more frequently, not that he required it. I also made repeated inquiries of the governor, chaplain, and turnkeys as to what they had observed, and as to his remarks. I did so because I thought it possible that the judge might ask my opinion as to his mental condition. During the last seven or eight weeks I frequently discussed and entered into details of the horrible tragedy and of his religious views ; he was always open and unequivocal in stating his opinions, though they were of the most absurd character ; he justified his acts and often expressed comfort at the approaching termination of his life. Sometimes I thought his monstrous notions might bo all pretence—that he had an object to accomplish, so I often travelled over the same ground with him to test his sincerity. From all that I saw and heard I was sorely ' perp iesed as to the true state of his mind. Sometime I thought he was insane—again I thought he was sane, In this difficulty I remained till the assiaes approached. Mr. Leech called on me a fortnight before the trial ; I told him that I was desirous of having nothieg to do with either the prosecution or defence, that I could only state to the jury what I had observed, and that I considered Townley suf fered from a morbid condition of mind. Some days after wards I had a consultation with Dr. Hitchmann, and our joint opinion was that no case of legal insanity could be established, and that an intelligent jury would be certain to find him guilty. About this time, Dr. Forbes Winslow, a great authority in lunacy, saw Townloy, and reported on his case. This I read carefully. Dr. Winslow had no doubt that Townley's delusions and statements emanated from organic brain mischief ; that he was insane. I put all these varied and accumulated facts, opinions, &c. together, and after balancing the evidence before me, and endeavouring to give a mature and impartial judgment, I came to the cone elusion, through the portals of doubt, that Townley was of unsound mind. His essential defects were net discernable in discussing et dinary topics,but on matters relating to Miss Goodwin he was monomaniacal. My early impressions were made on superficial data I believed then to be correct. I now consider the note in my journal regarding his mind to be erroneous. Mr. Mundy's language at the sessions implies that the magistrates having read my note on or about the date it was written (Oct. 6), have remained till the day of Town ley's trial under the conviction that my " decided opi nion" was that he was " perfectly Lane." I must now very respectfully ask the Visiting Justices whether my consideration entry was ever seen by them till January 3, 1564, the day previous to the sessions. If that be a fact, how could my note have misled them I If they were uninformed of my written opinion, why should it surprise and aggrieve them ? It is asked by Mr. Mundy, , 4 why I did not communicate the change that had taken place—that change taking plies at the gaol ?" If this applies to Townley, my reply is, that no change did take place in him ; if to royeeif, I answer, that almost till going into the witness-boa, I was undecided as to the opinion I elteuld give. I told Mr. 14.ech I phould be guided touch MR. F. FEEL AT BURY. The Right Hon, F. reel, M.P. (one of the Under •Secre taxies of the Treasury), met his constituents at Bury, Lan cashire, on - Wednesday eveniug. Tho lower room of Barn brook-mill had been prepared for his reception, and an audi ence estimated at from 3,C00 to 4,000 assembled. Mr. Ueo, Whitehead presided. Mr. PEEL, who was much cheered, said that among the anniversaries to which he looked forward with pitasuro he counted that which brought him before his constituents to account to them for the manner in which he had performed his duties as their representative, and, as it were, to strike a balance in the account between them; and far frcm that pleasure palling him by repeated use, he found it as freak and as treat as at the first, th-,nlr.s to the cordial greeting he always received and -the kindly feeling ivhcb they in variably manifested towards him. Ho welcomed Och cue • cessive meeting as affording another link in that leaicthell. big chain which bound them together so firmly and yet so freely; and he looked upon those meetings as a safeguard for _ _ _ his o•a•n faithful service, because they reminded him of his responsibility to them; and he knew that a sense of respon sibility to one's constituency was not less necessary to make a member of Parliament a good member than was a sense of responsibility to the elected representatives of the nation themselves necessary to make the Government of this country a good Government. These annual audits appeared to him to combine many of the advantages of annual elec tions, with freedom from their disadvantages, because they imparted that popular impulse, they gave that fresh sense of responsibility, under whch a member newly elected might be supposed to act, 'without foregoin:e those advan tages which might be presumed to be derived from the services of members of Parlitment ~ 'ho had the experience of several sessions to guide them. It had been said that the Parliamentary duties of mene'iers had not been so onerous of late as they formerly were ; that the last session, like the pre ceding one,, had not been prcductive of any striking legisla tive results, (Hear.) He thought, however,that some measures were passed which, thouyt not ushered in by any flourish of trumpets, were calculated t; produce the most beneficial re sults. But admitting the statement to be tine generally, the fact was easily to be accounted for, inasmuch as be the prevailing temper of the public men the questions of the day had not afforded a faeenrable field for the realisation ot such legislative results as he had referred to. These were times when the question ;o f most particular interest con cerned the foreign rel ague; of this country—the equilibrium not of classes at home, bat of independent Powers abroad — times when, perhaps, themaintenanee of peace—the greatest blessing which a countr7 could have—might depend upon the issue of negotiation; that were pending—times when what this country principally desired was that her itefluence should be used in the cause of moderation and conciliation abroad, and when the face of that public opinion, of which she is the representative, should be brought to bear for ac complishing those ends; and times when, in order that pub lic opinion should have it s d ue weight, it was essential that the mind of the country should be as the mind o f one man, and that no questions s h ou ld ar i s e to divide or weaken her counsels. (Applause,) It was clear that the mind of the country had been beat apon what was passing outside, and he must confess that When we reflected that the tempes t was still raging in Am er i ca with undiminished fury; when we marked that war seemed on the point of breaking out in the north of Germany; when we observed how the horizon abroad was everywhere clouded and overcast—we could not be too thankful at our i mmun ity f r om those complications in which foreign c oun t r i es were i nv olved. We could not be too thankful, seeing how elsewhere the atmosphere was overclouded, for the sunshine we ourselves were enjoying, even though there might be spots in the sun and shadows beneath it, which it would be politic at the first opportunity to remove. (Cheers.) In any political speech, under existing circumstances, the leading topic must necessarily be the American questio n , (H ea r, hear.) The war had now las ted three years, and we saw that as ye t the north had not been able to overc ome th e res i s t a nce of the South. The North was like the Roman Consul who would not despair of the Republic in its adversity. The North did not despair of the Union, and was straining every nerve in its cause. The South had broken from that Union ; would not hear of it again ; disbelieved in the possibility of its reconstruction ; disbelieved that the Union could again exist in its former sense of a brotherhood of States ; believed, therefore, that union fur it mast mean subjugation, and so strained on its side— and if possible to a higher degree of tension—every nerve for the purpose of accomplising its independence. To a bystander he thought it would appear that that dreadful war must have created a gulf between the Northern and the Southern people more impassable than the widest seas or the loftiest mountain barriers by which nature ever separated one people from another—(hear)—and that, therefore, the alternative ot that war must be subjugation or separation. discovered, had He remembered meeting in an old writer with the expres seen "the America of truth," What he meant by that ex pression was the undiscovered parts of truth, because he not he so startling wrote . some 300 y ears ago, at a time when America, though forcible enough, B u t he (Mr. Peel) thought there could be of this war to nut been explored, and the expression ws no doubt that if there were an America of fiction it would a , the America of truth, not of 300 years ago, but of the present day. Look only now at the burden Tula) the question' one side —the North. We had had authentic information on that e ubject placed before us in Messages presented to Congress lately, statements of which, to use an f' liability" could not be disputed. American phrase the -e • years the w ar h a d lasted it was costing the Central Govern of CliPell , X. It app eared that the three ment of the North a t the rate of £150,000,000 a-year. It ay pense they were not able to ra ise peered that of th a t a nnual ex byte anon m ore th a n L 25,000,000 a -year, consequently the remaining £125,000,0 00 h ad to be obtained by borrowing; 411( t ALA they had up to the p resent ties: found uo thilwu y stimulated by high prices, should become general, leaving us dependent no longer on one source of supply, then, whenever the good time should return, it would be doubly welcome, for it would not only come, but come to remain. (Cheers ) The only question asked cf Mr. Peel was whether ho would support "Mr. Lawson's Permissive Bill ;" as to which he said he declined to pledge himself, but had no ob jection to vote for a first reading. The meeting resolved unanimously and with acclamation to bupport Mr, Peel at the next election. SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS, TIMES.—We are in a position to place before the public this morning a complete history of the pro ceedings connected with the respite of George Victor Townley, and the ease has acquired a character of such extraordinary importance that it cannot be too attentively observed. On fay day following the conviction of the prisoner, Mr. Baron Martin, who had tried him, reopened the question by a commu nication to Sir George Grey, suggesting, but merely sug gesting, a further inquiry into t he convict's actual state of mind. The judge's letter was not decisively worded. Of his own opinions, indeed, it conveyed but this much. - -that he thought the con viction right, but as two medical witnesses at the trial had deposed " in the strongest manner" to the actual insanity of the prisoner as he stood at the bar, the judge thought it right to " cal: the attention" of the Home Secretary to the point thus raised. To this letter Sir G. Grey, after three days' considera tion, replied in terms implying that he himself could see nothing in the report of the trial to call for fresh investigation, and he begged the judge to give him his own impression on the subject. Mr. Baron Martin answered that he " could not say that he had formed any decided opinion on the point," but that he thought there should be further inquiry. Thus moved, Sir G. Grey addressed himself to the Commissioners in Lunacy, frankly avowing his con viction that the verdict was right, and that the pri soner had been sane at the time of the murder, but stating the question which had been since raised as to his present sanity, and commending it to the con sideration of the Commissioners. These gentlemen lost no time in proceeding to Derby and instituting the inquiry with which they had thus been charged. On the 28th of December they made their report. In this document they appear somewhat disposed to let Sir G. Grey form an opinion for himself from the minutes of the proceedings which they submit to him, but they do communicate their own con ciusions to the extent which the following words will indicate :—" In view of the extravagant opinions thus deliberately professed by him (the convict), of his extraordinarily perverted moral sense, and of the hereditary taint alleged, and apparently proved, to have existed in the family of the prisoner's grandmother, we cannot consider him to be of sound mind ; but his views of right and wrong, false as they are, appear to have been coherently acted upon, and with a full sense of what they involved. He reasons now as he acted in committing the murder. Upon the point of his alleged belief in a conspiracy against him we pressed him very closely, but we could not satisfy ourselves that this was in the nature of a delusion. " They close their report in these terms—" Being of opinion, therefore, that the prisoner continues to be now in the same mental state as when he committed the murder, and underwent his trial, we think that, applying the law as laid down by Mr. Barcn Martin to this case, the prisoner George Victor Townley was justly convicted." Such was the point to which the case was brought by the action of the Home Secretary taken upon the suggestion of the judge. But by this time action had been taken in other quarters. On the day before the date of the commissioners' report a certificate was forwarded to Sir George Grey, signed by three justices of the peace and two medical practitioners, briefly testify ing, in such language as a certain Act of Parliament demanded, that George Victor Townley was insane. And on the day after the commissioners' report, a similar certificate was forwarded, signed by two justices of the peace, one of whom had signed the first certificate, end two medical practitioners, being identical with those acting in the first instance, to the same effect as before. There were, therefore, three reports made in as many days—one, in the form of a certificate, on Dec. 27; another, from the Commissioners of Lunacy, on the 28th; and a third, in the shape, as it were, of an amended certificate, on the 29th. Why the last should have been sent it is not easy to see, unless it was thought better to comply exactly with the words of the statute, which spoke of "two" justices of the peace, neither more nor less, whereas the first certificate had been signed by three. In fact, it was the latter of the two docuieents on which Sir George Grey acted, having, as is now known, no dis cretion in the matter. An Act of Parliament obliged him, on the receipt of such a certificate as was sent to him on the 29th of December, to direct the removal of the convict from the gaol to a lunatic asylum, and consign him to a madhouse instead of leaving him to be executed. This obligation he simply discharged. The reader is now in posses sion of every circumstance of the case from convic tion to the reprieve, and the conclusions suggested are important in the extreme. The Jedge who tried the case did not doubt the justice of the conviction. He was moved only by the professional expositions of Dr. Forbes Winslow and Dr. Gisborne, and, in deed, if the latter gentleman be identical with the surgeon to the gaol, whose letter we publish else where, we may compress the authority into that of Dr. Winslow alone, for his opinions seem to have been largely instrumental in deciding those of Dr. Gisborne. The Home Secretary could see no reason for moving in the case on the face of the evidence, could he, on a second application, get the Judge Re. - to any ,t n I d e o n u y b t of s t apart be f e r x o iente._experts. Then he thought to c Then came due to the tes. ;impartial inq u i r y made by the the scientific snit :nd it may probably be Lunacy Commissioners , pod..- that S ir George d ee med fortunate for the d, , "called upon j Grey was not, as he has since stat. er t .. he son. to decide :'on that Report alone whet , : " tence of the law ought t o be executed or note, The fate of Townley was d ecided b y the ccrtih.fate: Upon this, and this only, Sir George Grey framed his warrant, as, indeed, he had no option but to do. Two justices of the peace and two medical practi tioners can compel him to do the same in any other case and at any time. It is under these circum stances that the stage of the case which we now approach acquires such extraordinary importance. Who constituted this commission of the magis trates aad two surgeons, with power to overrule every other authority in the country ? A formal representation has been made to Sir George Grey to the effect that the commission was conetituted at the instance of the prisoner's friends and ad visers, and by them introduced into the gaol. This seems to be partially, though by no means absolutely denied ; but a far more important asser tion has received no denial at all. The Derby shire magistrates who memorialised the Home Secretary in the ease distinctly alleged that every member of this self-constituted commis sion, magistrates and surgeons alike, had not only formed conclusions beforehand, but had placed these conclusions on record. In short, these gentle men, who entered, with a power of arbitrary deci sion, on the task of ascertaining whether Townley was sane, or insane, had already settled in their own minds that he was hawse, and had published their opinions. We are not sure that these asser tions cover both the certificates sent up, but the doubt is not material. Three out of the four certi fying authorities, if not all, had unquestionably pre judged the case, and put their judgments on record before they commenced their official investigation. We have not the least desire to impeach the sincerity 3f their views. No doubt their conclusions were uprightly formed, but, having been formed, they certainly disqualified those who had formed them for the office of impartial and unbiassed inquirers. We do not quarrel with these gentlemen as advo • cates, but only as judges ; and we repeat our opinion that a law which could admit of their passing un challenged from one of these capacities to the other ought, with all possible expedition, to be repealed. The Derbyshire magistrates, up wards. l of forty of whom remonstrated against this proceeding asked for an investigation into th e "orig in and conduct" of the inquiry which p r od uce d suc h results ; but Sir Geo. Grey replied that, as the certificate had been "in accordance with the provisions of the statute," these antecedents were "immaterial," they may have been to hi s d ec i s i on , b ut to the interests of the publi c th ey certainlym immaterialmaarteenrioatl. As the case now stands, and as we are left, in de fault of any correcti on t o conclude, a man who did not on the 12th of December appear mad to either Judge or jury, who was not on the 28th of the mouth thought by the Commissioners mad as to hav e b een wronglyeonvietedin, and d n wb y o who s in the opinion of the Governor of the Gaol was never mad at ailnl, d is ef s e u r d en a c e e nl st - o re t p h rie ve d on the 30th of the month magistrates an d two alurgeeopn fortuity with the terms private a expressedte opinion i o n f o t o w n ! which nobody a n ti c i none the less so becauseb p4te e d. of lt t , t is s a ta v t e u r t y e the eri scopeca s e;of It is very proper thate all the steps, strange as the result may be, have convict under sentence of e been e taken i t yaccording insanityto l o a f w a . death should be ascertained but for ascert a i n i ng POST.—The Nat i ina l it an agency should be provided beyond any su s pi cion of prepossession cr prejudice. proaciaieg Terc entenary C o mmemoration should be. Shakspere Committee, by their report to the Society of Arts, has put the public in posesession of their views of what the ap- It may all be collection of understand Men- money comprehended in one sentence—the is to beA s n f o a r e o a m s m e y e ! the report, thrice for asta moration in the proper sense of the word—no festival. 5 • • Something is said of a morning perform- m...s.saoelaaaaaaoll.f.oa...mhsta....."""'"ligilil...l..... o f ance at one of the theatres, and of the roo t I . ls ; ri g the London theatres on a certain evening L st given to swell the funds of the comm ittee ; but wi,d, is all. Nothing more of consequen ce is announ. ,d and these elithiviiqst , c the cause BOP , 11 r :,, mit themselves whether that is encaigh? T h t c e nturies after his bieth S hal , =, pere is to be 11 0130 `, 1 ,' by a statue, and the " improving the occasin , ►• popular preachers say, by the theatrical pet 811 °rll ances, is called a commemoration ! W e do not 1A v 6; to pick boles in a scheme at present only half de e loped, but we take leave to say that so m agyeea, proposal is very disappointing. There can, ouk., be no objection to a statue per se. No doubt Sba 2 t spere ought to have had a statue y ears ago. leg now that, after three centuries, the kingdom is e l vassed for homage to the great bard, is a s tatue, Bri A , nothing but a statue, the true and adequate nietho" of commemoration ? We think the public wills I that it is not. Let us have a statue by all me s) o l but let us have a great deal more besides. Le t It have the week, or the greater portion of the we e u " in which the 23d April occurs devoted to Sbn i. sperian festivity. It is not for us to sketch (A l ia programme. We have already l a id down ee rta s e principles deducible from the natuee of the 0 5 6. , which ought to vide the promoters of the 03°Ibe ment. But we cannot help sayi n g that, ate far ag i n g i National Committee's program me g oes, notb seems to be contemplated but the collection of 01°e for the statue. Now, if a etatie e were the Pr°r4 it ii way of commemorating the Tercentenary, t bel i this collection of resources ought to have 011 fro ; e0 place months ago ; the money ought t o have been collected, the statue completed, and then Wh ell p e ed 23d of April came, it might have been unc°l—bile in the presence of tens of thousands; %lot royalty, rank, merit, art, literature, and pori i d, en th us iasm circled round to admire and aPPtielt Such an uncovering, with all th e accessories '8;0 the various interests and orders represented c°4l., supplye—oratory, music, song, and the electr ies) ol , pathy of numbers—might indeed be termed ag t ie memoration, and be worthy of the poet ; but viu° l l now proposed, however ultimately successful,ot as far as the Tercentenary is concerned be a Ye ar „g, two after date. The money is not yet forthc oo3 4t, the site is not yet chosen , nor the artise; l'io after all, the celebration of the Tercentenary ill is danger of becoming exactly what it o u g ht not to —a means of raising money , and ShakePere 19 0 f * have a statute subscribed for on the princtple;de charity ball! We suggest to the disting uleh n or sons whose names ale mentioned in the rePri of they would make the, occasion far more ia the man whom they desire to honour , if, vbllijetbeir hering to the purpose of a statue , t he y enlarefue:tiel programme so as to include whatever can be undertaken in honour of the poet. Ca n nothi l r done in other places than London to keep th e w centenary ? Since the Society of Arts has ase° c— ot s ' e itself with the movement, can it not project owe mode of Shaksperian festivity for the P°P2 l t e generally ? We can understand the liberalit/.011 manager giving the proceeds of an evenihg tfitool the statue, but we cannot understand the coalw,„ l " o cli s acceptance of them. What we could u nders7 ; sC a gratuitous performance, at which cert a 7 11 0 credited people—the youth of evening ela' se 100 0 ; members of mechanics' institutes and literal :roe tutions, and many more who otherwise raig h ,',. / es! see a Shaksperian representatiou in their ' t ier, might be admitted free on production of t go iell obtained through proper agency from the f o rt ! ; r; of Arts. We could understand any schern e _ At e., : l ' presentingthe choicest of Shakspere's plaYar.sool.,; the latest and most perfect appliances of °7„ n or' art, or for lecturing on Slaakspere, or for oratii,,, Shakspere, or for modes of bringing home netitri pere to the popular heart up and down the c' t b/°: as well as in London. All this would be Ileti° 11 ; him, and would increase his hold on the O P - 40 60 0 ; and gratitude of his countrymen ; but all thif 1 : 0 4 13 ,,; as a means of raising money for a statue, thalee,CY to be raised without difficulty from the 1 : , 1. offerings of the people, is below the occasi ° loo ol us have the statue , but let us have also a 01. COUNTRY MARKET S. MANCHESTER—TuunsDAY+ 0 6 1 At our market this morning there was about en pa attendance, and wheat sold slowly at rather en B .,„ l l,ile_,°" o . l fine descriptions cf both English and foreign+ Li Sn i .p`ti moner qualities of red American must be 'l a ne, cental lower. Flour dull, and 6d per sack nlg - priP receded ld per 451 b, and oatmeal 6d per load. ~ o nel beans and Indian corn each 6d to is per qr less ra A.l bi o BURTON-ON-TRENT—Titultsl) ,; v / 1- 0 We had a tolerable supply of English wheat to . l o do t o, sold slowly at about last week's rates• The busir l iot e fo in barley was inactive. Oats in fair request. at kii Beans as before. 00 t° 0 Malting Old white wheat..4ss to 48s Old red wheat, +•'3 g s to# New do. ..445 to 47s New do. • . ' ,206 , to io Grinding d0.....27s to 31s I Beans ......... Y....34s to 40s Oats ............ isistO The tone of our BRISTOL--TiconsnA.y, large supply of, English wheat, which sold slowlyr cline of 6d to Is per qr on the prices of this day se_ d it; Foreign almost without inquiry• Malting barley market to -day was flat, and thou Grinding sorts in moderate yquest, and quiteerfTotr, Oats scarce, sad a dull trade. Beans and peas l v cheaper. Ai' - BIRMINGHAM—Txtr a aeo There was a fair show of wheat, with 611 ' 'Ol O —English wheat was sold at 40sito 468 for vith,f i ;K,s o „a" to 42s per 36 stone for red. Barley , new Wl' ,ov . 40s per qr ; grinding, 26s to 30 s Oats, 0 1 al or per 30 stone; lrish, 18s to 245. Beans, 400 to Peas, 36s to 44s per 36 stone. EDINBU.CGuH GRA . I . N . : ver 3- 1 1 ; 0 1 0 3 ,.1 . 0 4 : 0 1 : 11 : 9 W T h o e :d t a o y n t t h h e e s t a o m p p 2 le s s 6 w d et p large, with a brisk Is '" last week's prices. g a til' i t ,„... Os 'gado Barley on the top Os 6d d0 p w . n .. ...... ** ~.averag 00 0 Oats on tho top 6d up ........... ..., average jo 4 I Beans on the top la Od down ..... ..aVvrage Total Supply and Sa les. 308 (Iti: Wheat ... 907 qrs ........ Sold •sgO (1, 8ar1ey........2172 qr 5........ Sold 1 6 00 (1 1 .'" A 0 Oats .0i Beans 2lB qrs. .... . ... Sold e 7 140 , v Flour sells 3elloss d ; fine,a o sfollows: 3-4nites, 405.0 d ; superfine, -,....- Foreign Mail Packet VA ........_____.--- igi Australia and Mauritius, ~ou 'Tipton." ..f.:.119,. LSrazil and Cape Verds, b v y ia ß l' r l it a ieh ei " liace i.l ". i . en ::ll ; :°::'l6; MA viaZLS I)UZ.uia Cape of Good Hope, Ascension,. and , 8 0 ,pto100 .' Chin aai a, a(nß l' do e nal n s a bl n aan g yd ,and Singapore, via Sout' - ' ° :ties ". ll F nn a da l k ii (Calcutta),v:Gibraltar, .• " JP" ai. . _ ...... . ...„„ i p / via Maroc' . via d Southampton S 7.7:: : ..:, i , Southanipton .....•'''''''''''''''' 10 . 14 ::: 11' %; via Marseilles '''''' • • ''....•••01• Portugal... • .• 0. ...• • l i p ).1. Malta, i Egypt, and Aden, via SouthanVt° ••• lan' . 0 ' . via Marseille :‘,..• •.. Newfoundland ' 0 Jorto and Vigo ''' '''''''''''''''' • • ~ JO. ..• , .... " gat. , ' 0' U. S. and ' • British N. America, L.-!l3rit. r'e t. ~• rot 0, Y -,-f• 4 pite lte tr .t/A / I . by u ."' d io pao••'' fr„ l• W.C. by CM° .. ''Lee r ; 5 ' .of Africa, Madeira,'de ...... -SP and Tenor' ....••• JO 0 Bahamas, via Mexico ....... New York ................ ...i $O , All parts of Indies,Wer:t .................... ' V eil' I / and ir 1 : 1 :" ...#.. °' California. .British Columbia. ..... . fill, of t a na , 4 1 [AnvEnusmiENT.]—Holloway's Ointitithelle 0,:p,1030197, Happiness round the Heartb,—.Witil ' f l o g P'ot . 4 r temptations. and accidents daily endange-J,31000 life in large cities it is most important to the 01.0 some means of stopping the budding el t .", l ' a cl e g es l o /1 is neglected the more widespread is i•w•-iont; 0 i Holloway's medicaments supply this great to read 0111,11 inexpensive, purchaseable anywhere, c'T„prfectild i,,e are safe even in inexperienced hands, anr,u'invitaen,t.ii".fi' as healers and purifiers. Holloway'a '''-; ns */ I ' o 4 cure inflammations, abscessesi-and uleerattodies 44 lity hitherto unknown. Holloway'S remedies 'ff relief to sufferers from skin diseases of tb , ,, er otO c w h a a s racters, for which in bygone daYs a d' tfl o p e,eo. often administered with fatal 000010 1 05' ____.-------- _ _oil BirtllB. ~ 4 .OtP - ‘ , 0 1 4 :, LECHMERE—On the 14th inst., at D, ale- dry fair, Lady Lechmere, of a son. a rdeV l Lars.—Cn the 12th inst., at liensingtotrg 0 ' .. oPi ' Cli the wife of Lieut.-Colonel G. Dloubrki code Co 20th Regt., of a son. Court d Y 1 01. On the 14th inst at Sutton WIGAN wick,. — the wife of Frederick Wigan, r3g.' 1 i l i t li4l Idarriages. , A 11 Saille r JONr.g—ADAMS.—On the 12th in at ,-...,_eet, a , worth, Mr. R. C. Jones, of 4, Dow n e ., P IT to Elizabeth, eldest daughter o f gr. TP. A 4 Coventry. t Off °l; 0 11 S e ° te WALLER—BAnTox.--On the 12th inst. , ° o p, 13 13 Rev. A. E. of li-ing's stl o r of t tonshire, to Mary Louisa, only daug,iro, j Ipr Barton, Esq., of It angemoor, Stsffordsm• 0 0, Y P i. fe ° Deaths. 011 0 jt'' ATratuTy.—On the 12th inst at 14, Che s O, ' I , .9 grave-square. General James AhmutY, al , $ te e" tl t Army, aged 90. Cr aven' f3 " 9 COYNE.—On the 11th inst., at 13, e, TP 3 Miss Susan Coyne. astiv°ry 01° HALunr—On. the 13th inst., at Dicvi'c r „, P l 6 ,r 1 Halket, Esq. 00 5 ' 4 1 , LE ' IN IN . ,—On the 13th inst., at Manor 40 , J, B. Clalord Lewin, Esq., age d 48' W. v ( IP Moss.—On .iy.ton, the 13th inst., at lienst r, , ot 1 aged 72. ~ 1 0 er 0 Tno WEIL —On the 12th inst,, at Brislit°'' . ~o Trower, 15th King's Hussars, aged 4-' ,. r jejo' i TRYBELL.—On the, 11th inst., at Eiculon.'' Botet Trydell, aged 72. London Primed and rnblished by Vl-" $U,¢ 01* of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at fiavoY, VIE v ,l Strand, in the Precinct of the ~ii ddleaex —Friday , January 16, 1864' D t F? C A O,A , t , ,„, Cr„ Dei Th! ~~. d x ¢ sj